![]() Instead they all got dumped out at once after months and months of radio silence, and Nintendo went "see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya" and left the game in the dust. These updates were amazing, but they should have been doled out on a consistent basis. Wait, final? It felt like we had barely gotten any! Granted, this one had a huge barrage of content, including the much demanded World creator and SMB2 mode, but it felt so backloaded. Then, an agonizing four months later, SMM2 finally got a new substantial content update, its final update. ![]() The virality of the game's launch window was pretty much over. At that point, six months after launch, many of the players who bought SMM2 had moved on with their lives and didn't bother even trying out the new updates. It was two more months after that before the game actually got a substantial update with a new play mode and new level creation features. The game came with a good chunk of content out the gate but four months with no updates at all after they were promised left people wanting. The game came out at the end of June of 2019, and didn't get its first content update (a pretty minor one at that: online multiplayer with friends, which indisputably should have been in the game from the start) until October of that year, four months later. The problem was that there were exactly three updates spread over the course of about a year. On paper, free updates that add more features sound great. I feel that Nintendo could have communicated the appeal way more effectively than they actually did. They think it must be an unsatisfying game for people who don't want to create levels, not realizing that you literally don't have to even touch the level editor to get hundreds of hours of play value. There's so much built-in appeal to the concept of an infinite Mario level machine, yet so many people don't even realize that's what Super Mario Maker 2 is. To me, this seems like one of the biggest flubs of all. “My kids want to play games, not make them!” U Deluxe instead: that looks like a Mario game, whereas Super Mario Maker 2 doesn’t look like a game, it looks exclusively like a level editor. It starts to make sense why families opted for New Super Mario Bros. Even on Wii U, they got this point across better with the "Play, Create, Share" slogan. Imagine how many more players they would have gotten if they had said "infinite levels to play online". The advertising practically feels hostile to people who don't want to touch the level editor, as the ads make level creation seem like the sole appeal of SMM2. I'm no good at building levels." So many people got the impression from Nintendo's marketing that this was a game for level designers and not for people who just like playing Mario games. I can't tell you how many times I've heard from friends, "I'm not interested in Super Mario Maker 2. The online multiplayer and ability to play endless courses online are not even acknowledged. The 100-level story mode is a footnote at best. ![]() This is where I think the marketing went all wrong and is what prevented this game from selling over 10 million units: it looks exclusively like a level editor and that you can only share your levels locally. Take a look at the official TV spots for Super Mario Maker 2:ĭo you notice something about these commercials, specifically the US ones? There's an enormous focus on the course-building and local multiplayer aspect, but barely, if any acknowledgement whatsoever that you don't have to actually build a single course to get infinite play value out of the game. How could a Mario game with infinite replay value and a never-ending supply of courses to play alone and with friends not even touch the top 10 best-selling Switch games list three and a half years later? And why did interest in it decline so badly? I believe there are two major reasons why, and it all comes down to not the game itself, but how Nintendo supported and presented it. U Deluxe, an old Wii U game with finite levels, sold considerably better at 13.3 million units, and something starts to feel a bit amiss. Then you look at how New Super Mario Bros. Certainly not a bad number by any stretch, but it seems quite low when you consider just how much play value it offers. However, since its release in 2019, it has kind of fallen by the wayside, and most people don't seem to play it or even talk about it much these days.Ĭurrently, Super Mario Maker 2 has sold a little under 8 million units. It feels like the possibilities for players and creators are almost infinite, as it is bursting with fun and creative ideas and an overall love for all things Mario. Now that all of the updates are out (more on that later), the sheer volume of content available is enormous. I consider it to easily be a top 10, if not top 5 Nintendo Switch game. Let me start off by saying that Super Mario Maker 2 is an amazing game. ![]()
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